Beijing Paper Critical of Gov't Shut Down

A Beijing newspaper has been closed after it printed an essay criticizing China's parliament as amateurish, amid a government crackdown aimed at tightening media controls.

The shutdown of Beijing Xinbao coincided with what a government spokesman called a review by communist authorities of all of China's newspapers and magazines. He said others might be closed.

The crackdown came after Chinese promises of greater openness during the SARS outbreak and official praise of the media's role in publicizing information about the disease.

Beijing Xinbao was shut down after its June 4 issue, which carried the essay, said an official of the State Press and Publication Administration who wouldn't give her name.

The commentary included the largely ceremonial National People's Congress on a list of "China's Seven Disgusting Things."

The full legislature meets once a year for two weeks to approve Communist Party decisions and endorse the appointment of government officials. Members are appointed by the party.

"Why is it so surprisingly amateurish and unprofessional?" asked the essay, which has been posted on several Chinese Web sites. "The second thing I don't understand is: Who chose these representatives?"

Authorities are reviewing all of China's publications in line with "media reforms" ordered by the Communist Party at its national congress last November, a spokesman for the publication administration said on condition of anonymity.

"We are doing a full investigation about the quality and quantity of all publications in the country," he said. "Publications that fail to meet regulations will be shut down."

The spokesman refused to say what standards publications were required to meet. He said they have been ordered to stop selling subscriptions until the end of September, but wouldn't give other details.

Though still state-owned, China's newspapers have grown livelier and more independent in recent years, reporting on social problems and sometimes on corruption and other sensitive topics.

Some government controls have been relaxed in an attempt to make Chinese media financially self-supporting amid falling state subsidies.

Chinese leaders have called for more reporting on industrial accidents in an attempt to improve workplace safety. And officials who were criticized for their slow early response to severe acute respiratory syndrome promised to release more information to journalists about the outbreak.

In addition, the beating death of a young man detained in southern China for lacking a residence permit prompted an outcry in the press over police brutality. The central government said this week it will change the rules on how police handle such cases.

But Chinese reporters also have been fired and a small number jailed after angering communist authorities by publicizing corruption and other official abuses.

In March, the weekly newspaper 21st Century World Herald in the southern province of Guangdong was closed after it published an interview with a former aide to communist founder Mao Zedong who called for free elections.

A manager contacted by telephone at the newspaper Workers Daily, which publishes Beijing Xinbao, refused to say whether its reporters or editors might be punished.

"That is an internal affair of the newspaper," said the manager, who refused to give her name.